Barack Obama will ask Congress to push through his US jobs bill next week. Photograph: Rex Features

The US added 103,000 new jobs in September, the labour department said on Friday, giving Barack Obama the first good news on unemployment in several months. But while the rise was better than expected by Wall Street economists, the headline jobless rate remained unchanged at 9.1%.

Next week the president will present his latest job package to Washington and has called for both sides to vote it through. The $447bn jobs bill will not pass without Republican support, and Obama and Treasury secretary Tim Geithner have called or bipartisan co-operation this week.

The September figures will come as a relief to the president after August showed zero jobs growth, but the White House will be disappointed that the headline figure remains the same. In order to win re-election next year, Obama would have to buck historical wisdom that an incumbent is unlikely to win with unemployment running at 7%, never mind 9%, where the rate has been since April.

Katharine Abraham, a member of the Council of Economic Advisers, described the rate as "unacceptably high". But she said: "Despite a slowdown in economic growth from substantial headwinds experienced throughout the year, the economy has added private sector jobs for 19 straight months, for a total of 2.6m jobs over that period."

She added: "Clearly, we need faster economic growth to put Americans back to work. Today's report underscores the president's call for Congress to pass the American Jobs Act to put more money in the pockets of working and middle-class families."

Sectors with employment increases in September included professional and business services (+48,000), health care and social assistance (+40,800), information (+34,000, which includes about 45,000 returning Verizon strikers), and construction (+26,000). Sectors with employment declines included government (-34,000) and manufacturing (-13,000).

Local government lost 35,000 jobs, and has shed 383,000 jobs since February 2010, including 225,000 jobs in educational services.

The monthly employment and unemployment numbers are volatile, and employment estimates are subject to substantial revision. Therefore, as the administration always stresses, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report.

The House Speaker, Republican John Boehner, expressed disappointment with the figures and the need for a job creation package, though not the one proposed by Obama.

"Our unemployment rate has been higher than 8% for more than two and a half years, far above what the Obama administration promised with the 'stimulus.' For many groups, including teenagers, Hispanics, and African-Americans, the jobless rate is even higher. These sad numbers show that more Washington spending, threats of higher taxes on small businesses, and excessive government regulations don't create a healthy environment for job growth," Boehner said.

"The American people are asking the question: 'where are the jobs?'," he added.

September's jobs figures showed signs of a return of confidence to the private sector, which created 137,000 new jobs. Average hourly earnings increased 0.2% to $23.12 in September, reversing a drop in August.

But employment was held back as the government continued to shed jobs, axing another 34,000 in the month. The US Postal Service lost 5,000 jobs over the month. Local government employment declined by 35,000 and has fallen by 535,000 since September 2008.

The increase in employment partially reflected the return to payrolls of about 45,000 Verizon telecoms workers who had been on strike in August. The number of unemployed people, at 14 million, remained essentially unchanged in September.

The labour department said that the number of people employed part-time for economic reasons rose to 9.3 million in September. These individuals, also known as involuntary part-time workers, were working part-time because their hours had been cut back or because they were unable to find a full-time job.

Professional and business services and healthcare were among the brighter areas of the economy as far as new jobs were concerned. Employment in professional and business services increased by 48,000 over the month and has grown by 897,000 since a recent low in September 2009. Construction also appear to be picking up with employment up 26,000 over the month, after showing little movement since February.

The Labour Department said the increases was due to new jobs in the non-residential construction industries, which includes heavy and civil construction.

Mining employment continued to trend up in September.

Manufacturing employment was little changed in September, and has been essentially flat for the past two months. In retail, employment declined in electronic and appliance stores. Employment in wholesale trade, transportation and warehousing, financial acivities, and leisure and hospitality changed little.

The labour figures follow the latest survey from ADP Employer Services that said private companies added 91,000 jobs in September, far higher than the 75,000 analysts had been predicting. Teodor Todorov, economist at the London-based Centre for Economics and Business Research, said a "cautious optimism seems to have formed over the past week about the prospects for the US."

In a note, Capital Economics said: "There is no hint in September's Employment Report that another recession is starting. Nevertheless, the 103,000 increase in non-farm payrolls last month is still consistent with what would normally be considered very weak economic growth."

Futures rallied ahead of the opening bells but US stock markets appeared to be giving the news a mixed reaction. The Dow Jones was up while the tech-heavy Nasdaq and the S&P 500 were down in early trading.

Marcus Bullus, trading director at MB Capital, said: "The key figure is the overall unemployment rate, which remains at 9.1%. That figure is seemingly immutable. The real concern in the markets right now is the liquidity crisis in Europe and the US, so these more positive figures will have less of an effect than usual."